Are you selling online? Nowadays, so is everyone. You’ve gotta stand out. But keeping up with the trends and the tech as a small business owner is a chore!
Here are 5 trends we’ve been seeing in the ecommerce industry since the pandemic took over. If your online sales have been stagnant, try out one or more of these ideas!
Listen now!
I’m a big fan of the Nielsen Norman Group. If you don’t know, they are a user experience research firm that puts out articles and reports with great insight that guide how we can do things online, better.
They recently put out an article about the current state of ecommerce and how people shop online.
Ecommerce websites – aka websites where you can make a purchase electronically, rather than via a brick and mortar shop – used to, for lack of a better term, suck.
Nielsen Norman Group did a study of them back in 2000-2001. They found that users failed about 50% of the time when they tried to shop on ecommerce sites. So, half the time, the user wasn’t able to even make a purchase on a website specifically designed to sell products electronically.
Crazy, right?
ECommerce Is Much Better Today Than In The Past
Ecommerce, of course, has TOOK OFF since then. Things are better. Things are easier.
I’d say, in my personal experience, since the early 2010s, it’s been relatively-ish easy for a small business to get their products or services up online and sell them – but it’s getting way, way easier. And the whole COVID-19 pandemic really pushed shopping online forward.
So today, simply being able to make a purchase via a website isn’t EVERYTHING. Consumers aren’t satisfied with JUST this anymore. In today’s world, they’re looking for an excellent shopping experience where questions are answered and help is available to support them during the decision-making process.
Brands that are the most successful selling online understand the shopping experience for customers extends beyond just the website checkout. These brands design the entire shopping journey, from discovery through delivery.
I thought it would be fun to go through some of the “new” things successful ecommerce brands and websites are bringing. If you’re selling anything online, grab some ideas and inspiration to uplevel the online shopping experience for YOUR customer!
Keep an open mind: not all of the things we discuss here will apply to you 100%, but they may inspire some new ideas.
Let’s dive in!
Payment Flexibility & Financing
Have you heard of Afterpay, Affirm, or Klarna?
They’re options available on practically every major retailer website these days.
These platforms essentially offer a “buy now, pay later” option to shoppers. So, instead of paying $1000 for something all at once, you have the option to make 12 payments of $83.33.
This can help businesses acquire new customers and make new sales.
I’m not going to offer an opinion on IF one of these options is good to add to your business because it’s different for every situation. But I have consulted on and added options like Afterpay to several of my client’s websites at their request.
Consider Offering Payment Plans
If you want to offer flexibility when it comes to payments but don’t want to go through one of these platforms, more and more payment processors are making it easier than ever before to split payments up into partial payments. There are also more ways to set up subscription-based products which make it more feasible for customers to access.
Sliding Scale Payments Can Be Beneficial Too!
“Sliding scale” payments are also becoming more prominent too. I see this particularly in the health and wellness fields. More and more brands offer 3 payment options: for example, $800, $1200, and $1500. Pay what you feel comfortable with. Usually, the higher priced options include a couple extra bonuses. This probably isn’t going to work for traditional retail businesses, but can be useful for others.
Delivery & Pick-Up:
Curbside-pickup was barely a thing before COVID, but now we see it quite a bit. Target is a great example.
As a consumer, curbside pick-up can be super convenient. But from a logistics stand point, it can be a bit of a nightmare! It’s important to make sure the process is as smooth and seamless as possible, and customers must be properly informed of how it all works.
In my work in the past few years, I have had more clients doing pop-up style pick-ups and also more local deliveries. Properly informing customers BEFORE they start shopping what options are available to them is important…it’s no fun for the customer to pick out their items, begin the checkout process, and then find out delivery is only available for a certain part of the city.
Also, being able to put a limit on the quantity of available pick-ups/deliveries is crucial, since most businesses only have so many resources and limited capacities.
So for small businesses, delivery and/or curbside pick-up CAN be rewarding, but don’t go into it half-committed. Offering this is a BIG project and it’s something major retailers are still struggling to streamline. And of course, it’s only do-able if you have something that you’re selling locally!
Recurring Orders/Subscriptions
According to Nielsen Norman Group’s article, recurring orders is another thing that we’ve seen an uptick in since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is basically a subscription. I have a recurring order or subscription for ground coffee through Amazon. On the 25th of every month, I get an Amazon package delivered to my doorstep and it contains a 2 lb tub of my favorite Folgers. Yes, I know that beans that you grind taste fresher than preground coffee. But, I also know that I am lazy, and grounding coffee beans every morning is just not appealing. So, it’s pre-ground Folgers for me!
Anyway, because I have a recurring order thru Amazon for this, it’s all automated so I don’t have to think about it. My card gets charged automatically.
How can you leverage recurring orders/subscriptions?
I think food is one of the areas where recurring orders make a lot of sense. Most of us aren’t selling food. But I challenge you to start thinking about how you could offer a subscription or recurring order to your target audience.
Some examples I’ve seen from my small business clients:
- Florists offering monthly floral subscriptions
- Yoga teachers & fitness instructors offering a subscription-based video library of classes
Household goods can be another good area where this approach would work particularly well.
Product Page Videos
The last thing we’re gonna talk about here today is VIDEO. Nielsen Norman Group lists videos as “nice to have” on product pages for your website.
Videos can also work overtime because you can share them on various social media platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and more.
Video is GROWING in popularity and if you haven’t started to create videos for your brand yet, look into it this year! Videos can help answer questions your target audience may have about your product or service. On your website in particular, remember that video should work together with the text on the page…video should not REPLACE text all together. It’s all important. It’s key that the video have context.
Short videos that loop and show a product in motion, in use, are popular too. Long promo-y advertising videos are proving a thing of the past…or best suited for use in other locations, at least.
What about augmented reality tools?
Somewhat related to video is the “virtual try on” or augmented reality. Have you seen these before? I’ve encountered these on Target’s website and Bonlook, which is where I buy my glasses online. These tools are becoming more popular too, but the technology still isn’t there: they’re buggy and thus are more annoying than helpful. Until the tech catches up a bit, for most small businesses, I’d recommend avoid adding any augmented reality tool. If Target can’t get it 100% right, then we probably can’t either, ya know? That’s just reality.
Livestream Selling
Adding to our discussion on video, we have livestream selling.
Have you heard of this term before? It’s pretty new and it’s most popular in China, but it’s definitely catching on in other parts of the world too.
What the heck is livestream selling?!
Livestream selling is essentially when one goes live, usually on an app like Instagram or TikTok, and showcases products that the viewer can purchase right away, usually through the app, without leaving the stream. It’s kinda like a modern-day QVC, only more interactive.
It’s like shopping meets entertainment, and I think that’s one of the reasons it’s found so much success in recent years. With so many of us stuck at home, new ways to entertain us caught on.
Amazon has its own platform for this called “Amazon Live,” and I’ve got to admit – this is the only platform I’ve ever personally watched a livestream selling video on. I watched a social media influencer showcase and model different clothes that Amazon has available for sale. She tried on different sweaters, answered questions about the product, and chatted with the viewers watching.
Is Livestream selling right for you?
Livestream selling isn’t for everyone. If your following isn’t huge right now, you may not have the most success with it. It’s a numbers game!
The more people that follow you and engage with you, the more likely your live streams have a chance of being successful. Conversion rates for livestreams are typically higher than traditional ecommerce conversion rates, though; some companies claim they have a 30% conversion rate for live streams.
Livestream selling is a numbers game.
If you have a huge following, a 30% conversion rate would do great things for you. Let’s say 1000 people watched your livestream…if 30% of them made a purchase, that means you converted 300 people. Assuming an average purchase price was $50, you generated $15K from that livestream, which sounds like a success to me!
If your numbers are smaller, though, it may not make sense to put a lot of time & effort into livestream selling. And of course, livestream selling may be difficult depending on what you’re actually selling.
If you do try livestream selling, be careful you don’t abuse it. People can certainly become annoyed if it seems like you’re selling to them all the time! Like, if you’re doing this on Instagram, make sure it’s not the ONLY type of content you’re posting.
Wrapping It Up
Alright y’all, that’s a wrap! I hope you’re walking away with some fresh ideas and inspiration for some things to try online this year.
I know it can feel really overwhelming, like the world is changing so quickly and it’s hard to keep up! If you’re like “oh man, I haven’t even mastered Instagram Reels and I just got on TikTok, how the H-E-double-hockey-sticks am I supposed to figure out livestream selling?!” remember….there’s no single RIGHT way to do this.
Plus, if you simplify what we talked about here and don’t get too wrapped up in the details, it’s more manageable and not some new alien technology we have to figure out.
Live stream selling is essentially QVC for a new era.
Delivery and pick-up is not a new concept. In 2022, we’re just adding a new component where customers can configure their delivery and pick-up online.
And financing and payment plans have been around forever, too. Now, you just have the opportunity to more easily offer them to your customers.